Rajoelina had claimed he was in charge of Madagascar’s government at a rally on Saturday, though President Marc Ravalomanana told reporters he was still in control of the government. Violent protests last week killed dozens of people; news services had reported more than 100 people died, but now most accounts put the number closer to 70. Rajoelina’s opposition party led the protests.

VOA also reported that police arrested six leaders of the opposition party earlier this week before a rally in Toamasina, a city on the northeastern coast. “The Reuters news agency quoted a police official who said the men were arrested for holding a pubic meeting without a permit,” VOA said.

After Rajoelina claimed control of the government, the African Union reminded him and his fellow citizens that there are rules against coups. The organization prohibited two other African states, Guinea and Mauritania, from a three-day summit that started this week; those two nations have had military coups during the last several months.

“We ask them (the Malagasy people) to cool down, to keep talking and to solve their problems with negotiation,” said Jean Ping, the African Union Commission chairman, in a weekend interview with Reuters.

Protests, led my Rajoelina, started early last week in the capital city of Antananarivo, and by Monday all broadcasting in the island nation stopped after political opposition set fire to the country’s official broadcasting complex. Rajoelina called the current government a threat to democracy.

The absence of police and firefighters at the protests led some to speculate that they were in favor of the demonstration. Protestors also burned an oil station and a private TV station connected with President Ravalomanana. Additionally, they looted and destroyed buildings on the broadcast complex.

Rajoelina ran as an independent against the current president’s party during the 2007 race for mayor. Since taking office in Antananarivo, he has become an outspoken opponent of the regime. He has called the current government a “dictatorship,” the AFP reports, and has led a number of protests against the government.

The most recent round of protests is part of an ongoing response to Ravalomanana’s decision to shut down Rajoelina’s TV station, Viva, after Rajoelina broadcast an interview with an old political rival of the President’s, Didier Ratsiraka.

In 2002, Ravalomanana declared himself the country’s leader after what he claimed was a corrupt election denied him victory. The then-incumbent president, Didier Ratsiraka, had agreed to a second round of voting. The government refused to validate the declaration, and Ravalomanana faced the threat of becoming an international criminal.

However, after months of violence and economic instability, Ratsiraka fled to France. Ravalomanana began an era of reform and has consistently attempted to decentralize government and empower leaders in smaller provinces. But considerable political unrest continues in the region.

Marc Ravalomanana is in the middle of his second term as president, having been re-elected in 2006. He is independently wealthy, and the company he ran before taking office is the country’s largest domestically owned business. His fortune is self-made, according to the BBC; he grew up in poverty and started by selling yogurt from the back of his bicycle. Ravalomanana started his political career as mayor of Antananarivo in 1999.